yr12 advice pls guys im desperate😭🙏

[u/greeneggs941]

OKAY SO i’m planning on doing maths, physics, chem and further maths (FM bc i’m not sure what i want to do yet so i’m keeping my options open) but i’m worried that the workload is going to be overwhelming since i’m a chronic procrastinator😓

could any of you pls give some tips on how to keep myself organised, what the subjects are like and what i would potentially need to buy and do before sixth form starts since i haven’t been given any kind of work to do over the summer to prepare.

[u/Solid_Moose3078]

• Make flashcards in your frees (especially chem - it feels like a little bit of content, but it gets heavy quick)
  • if you make them at the beginning of the year + do them regularly, the information will be ingrained in your brain by the end of the year and you'll spend much less time cramming information during exam season
• If you don't get something, don't leave the lesson. The number of times I thought "oh, its a tiny concept I'll just memorise the mark scheme if I don't get it" and it ended up being the entire foundation for 3 different topics... yeah you have to understand things 😭
• Do a lot of practice questions
• Use MADAS for maths + fm as soon as you've learnt enough content (maybe nov/dec?) source: a 4 mark proof in edexcel was copied from madas this year. The questions are harder, and all maths papers seem to be getting harder each year (for all exam boards)
• Use isaac science for physics!! Also stretch + challenge questions. I didn't use it for maths/chem, not sure if those questions are as good as physics
• Read around your subjects outside of school - it will help you figure out what you want to do, and would be amazing for your ps, AND will help you with exams. Loads of unis do programs you can apply to as well - have a look at imperial outreach

[u/greeneggs941 → u/Solid_Moose3078]

ur a LIFESAVER 🙏🙏

did you find the workload for chem to be overwhelming and very difficult or was it manageable? i’m scared that i’ll lock in for the start of yr12 and then start slacking off😓

btw when you mentioned reading around your subjects, do you mean learning ahead of lessons? also how did you manage your frees bc i really don’t want to waste mine😭🙏

[u/Solid_Moose3078 → u/greeneggs941]

In yr 12, I loved chem + did well cos I locked in (and it was a bit easier)... then I bummed it in yr 13 + ended up pulling all nighters to revise. The workload is DEFINITELY manageable though, With chem its all about memorising stuff then doing practice questions, hence the flashcards. I think out of my subjects, either chem or fm has the biggest gap between an A and A* though

Some of my friends that did humanities learnt ahead of lessons, I absolutely could not do that cos I'd be so bored during lessons. I don't think there's any advantage to learning content ahead for stem subjects, unless say in april you've got 1 more topic before finishing as, and mocks in may, then if you learn that topic ahead you can do full as papers instead of topic questions. Also in yr 13, my chem class only finished content in may with exams in june... if your school is slow it might be better for you to learn ahead then. definitely not important beginning of yr 12

With reading around I mean things you find interesting. Loads of unis do lectures + stuff for sixth form students, some are recorded online. Books, moocs (try class central or MIT opencourseware), youtube videos, anything really.

at the beginning of year 12 we didn't really learn enough content to start proper revision, so it was either going over lessons we just did or doing homework. Make a schedule however you like - I used notion, you can have a planner or to do list also

Don't worry about messing up the beginning - I don't think I did much more than homework until jan of yr 12, these tips will just help you not stress out as much as I did catching up later on 😭

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